waiting till his troops came up, and beguiling the time with skirmishes and trials of individual valour.[272] But as soon as Otto perceived that his adversaries were becoming dangerous he struck his tents and marched rapidly homewards, satisfied with having inflicted on his rash cousin a far greater alarm and more serious damage than he had himself suffered from Lothar’s wild raid.[273] [268] Richer, l. iii. c. 68. [269] Chron. Vindoc. a. 954 (Marchegay, _Eglises_, p. 163). [270] Richer, l. iii. c. 71. [271] The exact date of Lothar’s attack on Lotharingia seems to be nowhere stated. That of Otto’s invasion of Gaul, however, which clearly followed it immediately, is variously given as 977 (Chronn. S. Albin. and Vindoc., Marchegay, _Eglises_, pp. 21, 163) and 978 (Chronn. S. Flor. Salm. and S. Maxent., _ib._ pp. 186, 381). The later date is adopted by Mr. Freeman, _Norm. Conq._, vol. i. p. 264. [272] Among these the Angevin writers (_Gesta Cons._, Marchegay, _Comtes_, pp. 79, 80) introduce Geoffrey Greygown’s fight with a gigantic Dane, Æthelwulf. It seems to be only another version, adorned with reminiscences of David and Goliath, of Richer’s account (l. iii. c. 76) of a fight between a German champion and a man named Ivo; and the whole story of this war in the _Gesta_ is full of hopeless confusions and anachronisms. [273] Richer, l. iii. cc. 72–77.